June Book List
Jun. 30th, 2010 09:34 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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christianreaderWith Justice for None
by Gerry Spence
This was recommended to me by my favorite accounting professor, but it was a little disappointing. It’s written by a former trial attorney and the basic premise is that there is no real justice in this country because it all boils down to who has the most money and can afford the most/best lawyers. I think we can all agree with that, but there wasn’t much beyond that in this book. It’s basically one long far-left rant (my professor was a far-lefty too) with very few suggestions on how to make things better, and the solutions that were there were of the pie-in-the-sky variety. 2/5
Andrew Jackson
by Sean Wilentz
I was wandering through the library looking for something to read because none of my holds were in when I spotted this. President Jackson and his battle against the Second Bank of the United States had been mentioned in passing in The Creature from Jekyll Island, and I realized I knew basically nothing about him, so I decided to check this out. It was very informative, very well-written. I have to say I have quite an admiration for Old Hickory after reading this book. He was a strict constitutionalist and despised central banking (and banking in general), so how can you not? 3.5/5
The Summoning [audio book]
by Kelley Armstrong
Book One of the Darkest Powers trilogy, this follows young Chloe Saunders and her entry into the supernatural world. It’s a fun book with well-written characters and some good plot twists. The reader (Cassandra Morris) is excellent, doing a very convincing 15 year old girl, as well as differentiating all the other characters. I could have done with a little less menstruation talk, but I guess that’s why there’s fast forward! Good YA stuff 4/5
The Awakening [audio book]
By Kelley Armstrong
Book Two in the Darkest Powers trilogy. It started out really well then kind of had this way-too-long chase/running away scene in the middle that dragged it down a little. As that part was going on I was thinking, “Maybe I’ll switch it up when this is done and listen to something else next”. But the end of the book really picked up and I stuck in Book Three as soon as this one finished. And unlike a lot of Book 2/3, this one actually advanced the story and didn’t feel like a bridge to the final entry *cough Girl who Played with Fire cough* 4/5
The City of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau
Ember is a city completely underground where the people have lived for over 200 years and aren’t even aware that there is anything else in the world besides their city. It’s a pretty familiar premise (This Time of Darkness, Breath of Fire: DQ [video game], etc), but these stories are always pretty interesting so I didn’t mind reading another one. I see there’s a movie version now, I might have to check that out at some point. 3.5/5
The People of Sparks
by Jeanne DuPrau
The follow-up to The City of Ember. Even revealing the plot is a spoiler, so I’ll just say that while it was different than the first book I thought it was just as good. There are two more books in the series and I just reserved them both. They’re aimed at a pretty young audience so they’re pretty short and quick reads, but still fun and interesting. 3.5/5
21st Century Game Design
by Chris Bateman and Richard Boon
This was a different take on game design. Instead of another book about design documents. backup files, and art assets, this was about the audience games are designed for and what lessons can be learned by looking at player types. The first part of the book where they talked about the various types was interesting. They used the Myers-Briggs typology to come up with four types: Conqueror, Manager, Wanderer, and Mimicker. There were also Casual and Hardcore designations, so there were 8 possible gamer types. The idea was to talk about what choices in design appeal to what types of gamers, and it was pretty fascinating at first. The middle part of the book dragged on horribly though, and I had doubts I was ever going to finish it (I renewed it twice and still incurred some late fees). It was basically a boring checklist: Type 1 like X and Y, while Type 2 like A and not B. The middle 100 pages could have been one big chart really. At the end they got into genre-specific stuff mixed in with a little history and that was much better. If I still had designer aspiration this would definitely be one to add to the personal library. 3.5/5
Books for June: 7
Books for 2010: 22
by Gerry Spence
This was recommended to me by my favorite accounting professor, but it was a little disappointing. It’s written by a former trial attorney and the basic premise is that there is no real justice in this country because it all boils down to who has the most money and can afford the most/best lawyers. I think we can all agree with that, but there wasn’t much beyond that in this book. It’s basically one long far-left rant (my professor was a far-lefty too) with very few suggestions on how to make things better, and the solutions that were there were of the pie-in-the-sky variety. 2/5
Andrew Jackson
by Sean Wilentz
I was wandering through the library looking for something to read because none of my holds were in when I spotted this. President Jackson and his battle against the Second Bank of the United States had been mentioned in passing in The Creature from Jekyll Island, and I realized I knew basically nothing about him, so I decided to check this out. It was very informative, very well-written. I have to say I have quite an admiration for Old Hickory after reading this book. He was a strict constitutionalist and despised central banking (and banking in general), so how can you not? 3.5/5
The Summoning [audio book]
by Kelley Armstrong
Book One of the Darkest Powers trilogy, this follows young Chloe Saunders and her entry into the supernatural world. It’s a fun book with well-written characters and some good plot twists. The reader (Cassandra Morris) is excellent, doing a very convincing 15 year old girl, as well as differentiating all the other characters. I could have done with a little less menstruation talk, but I guess that’s why there’s fast forward! Good YA stuff 4/5
The Awakening [audio book]
By Kelley Armstrong
Book Two in the Darkest Powers trilogy. It started out really well then kind of had this way-too-long chase/running away scene in the middle that dragged it down a little. As that part was going on I was thinking, “Maybe I’ll switch it up when this is done and listen to something else next”. But the end of the book really picked up and I stuck in Book Three as soon as this one finished. And unlike a lot of Book 2/3, this one actually advanced the story and didn’t feel like a bridge to the final entry *cough Girl who Played with Fire cough* 4/5
The City of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau
Ember is a city completely underground where the people have lived for over 200 years and aren’t even aware that there is anything else in the world besides their city. It’s a pretty familiar premise (This Time of Darkness, Breath of Fire: DQ [video game], etc), but these stories are always pretty interesting so I didn’t mind reading another one. I see there’s a movie version now, I might have to check that out at some point. 3.5/5
The People of Sparks
by Jeanne DuPrau
The follow-up to The City of Ember. Even revealing the plot is a spoiler, so I’ll just say that while it was different than the first book I thought it was just as good. There are two more books in the series and I just reserved them both. They’re aimed at a pretty young audience so they’re pretty short and quick reads, but still fun and interesting. 3.5/5
21st Century Game Design
by Chris Bateman and Richard Boon
This was a different take on game design. Instead of another book about design documents. backup files, and art assets, this was about the audience games are designed for and what lessons can be learned by looking at player types. The first part of the book where they talked about the various types was interesting. They used the Myers-Briggs typology to come up with four types: Conqueror, Manager, Wanderer, and Mimicker. There were also Casual and Hardcore designations, so there were 8 possible gamer types. The idea was to talk about what choices in design appeal to what types of gamers, and it was pretty fascinating at first. The middle part of the book dragged on horribly though, and I had doubts I was ever going to finish it (I renewed it twice and still incurred some late fees). It was basically a boring checklist: Type 1 like X and Y, while Type 2 like A and not B. The middle 100 pages could have been one big chart really. At the end they got into genre-specific stuff mixed in with a little history and that was much better. If I still had designer aspiration this would definitely be one to add to the personal library. 3.5/5
Books for June: 7
Books for 2010: 22
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